Alabama Bid Bonds
Surety Bond Professionals is a family owned and operated bonding agency with over 75 years of experience. With access to a broad range of surety markets, our expert agents are ready to assist with all of your bid bond needs.
What Are Alabama Bid Bonds?
Alabama bid bonds are surety bonds that provide protection for project owners against the financial harm they can experience when the winning bidder for a construction job pulls out and does not accept the contract. Having to start the competitive bidding process over again entails significant costs and delays. If a bidding contractor violates the terms of the surety bond agreement, the project owner can file a claim for monetary damages.
Who Needs Them?
Alabama bid bonds are required for certain state-funded projects that fall under Alabama’s “Little Miller Act.” This is the state’s version of the federal Miller Act that mandates bid bonds, performance bonds, and payment bonds for larger projects funded by the federal government.
Contractors bidding on projects that are subject to Alabama’s Little Miller Act must furnish the awarding authority with a bid bond for 5% to 10% of the bid amount, with a maximum of $10,000. The one exception is for transportation projects, for which the maximum bid bond amount is $50,000.
It’s becoming more and more common for private project owners as well as public awarding authorities to require bid bonds from potential contractors.
How Do Alabama Bid Bonds Work?
Every Alabama bid bond involves three parties with different, but intersecting, interests.
- The obligee is the awarding authority (project owner) requiring the bond,
- The principal is the contractor purchasing the bond, and
- The surety is the bond’s guarantor.
The principal is legally obligated to pay all claims the surety finds to be valid. But the surety guarantees the payment of claims by establishing a line of credit for the principal when the bond is sold. The surety will draw against that line of credit to pay a valid claim initially, creating a debt that the principal must repay. The surety can take legal action against a principal who fails to repay the debt according to the terms of the surety bond agreement.
How Much Do They Cost?
In Alabama, the project owner, who also serves as the obligee, determines the amount of the needed bid bond. This sum is normally five to ten percent of the total project offer. Surety Bond Professionals provides free bid bonds to contractors. These bonds are issued with the understanding that if you are granted the contract, you will work with our surety to get Performance and Payment (P&P) bonds in order for the project to move forward.
The bid bond underwriting method is adapted to the size of the project. The main goal for smaller contracts and businesses is to examine the contractor's personal credit history. For larger projects, however, underwriters take into account criteria such as
- the project's location,
- the contractor's overall reputation,
- and their financial health.
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